What my musings are all about...

Blogging might well be the 21st century's form of journaling. As a writing teacher, I have always advised my students to keep a daily journal as a way of organizing their thoughts for future writing projects, a discipline I have unfortunately never consistently practiced myself. By blogging, I might finally be able to follow my own good advice.

The difference between journaling and blogging is that the blogger opens his or her writing to the public, something journal- writers are usually reluctant to do. I am not so reticent.

The trick for me will be to avoid cluttering the internet with more blather, something none of us need more of. If I stick to subjects I know: sports and literature, I believe I can avoid that pitfall. I can't promise that I'll not stray from time to time to comment on ancillary subjects, but I will make every attempt to be interesting and perhaps even insightful.

Monday, December 7, 2015

NCAA Football Missing the Boat & etc

It is so perfect that how the NCAA is missing it astounds me. Here's the way the Final Four in Division I football should look like: Final four picks get a by, while waiting for the winners of the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl and the Peach Bowl. The winners of those bowls create an Elite 8 and playoff at the Orange Bowl until Two Winners face each other for the NCAA Championship. Imagine the hype an extended series such as this would create.

World Peace says he'd like to coach, adding that in his playing days he was "reckless" like his only act of recklessness was his fight in Detroit. Can he coach? Does he have the patience and the understanding of the game, the whole court, not just his position? Even if Peace is at Peace with himself, I just think he's too edgy to be a successful coach on any level. But if indeed he isn't afraid to take on any head coaching job, why not start in a high school? God knows high school kids need adults to take an interest in them.

What is Cousins doing shooting tons of 3's. Granted he's got a decent deep ball, but where do you need him? He shows the 3 and who's on the offensive glass?

Warriors let the Nets "hand around" but I was never in doubt the way I was with the Raptors. The minute Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez started backing down their opponents (dribble, dribble, dribble, bump, bump, bump) and the rest of the team stopped moving and watched them, I knew the Dubs were home free. Even Carmelo, the grandaddy of all ball stoppers has made an effort to keep the ball hopping. Time for the Johnson, Lopez and others like them to get on board. It's a new day in the pros. Go Dubs!

No worries Raiders' fans. This is the turnaround year, and turnaround was accomplished. The Raiders are now ready to return to the John Madden, Bill King era. Hear that, Bill wherever you are in the universe.

A quick note to end the Pac 12 football season, consider if the Oregon Ducks hadn't lost their quarterback, Vernon Adams, for three games, would they be playing in the Rose Bowl?

Here's a poem I wrote about football

Why I never Played Football

It's not that I lacked courage,I was big and weighed enough to makea decent tight-end or with a little workan offensive lineman or a fullback.What I couldn't see myself doingwas getting dirty, playing in mudor freezing in snow which back thenwhen I was young is what you had to endure. Perhaps these dayswith covered stadiums I'd think differently. Still, there was boundto be more blood playing football,yours or somebody else's, thanplaying another sport. Golffor example. See how cleanthose guys are out on the links,how civilized in their cardigans,in their neatly pressed trousers.?

Thomas Meschery, a son of Russian immigrants, he became the first international player to play in an NBA All-Star Game in 1963.

An All-American success story. Born in China in 1938, he came to the U.S. with his parents after WW II. An All-American at Lowell High School, San Francisco, and St. Mary's College, Moraga, California. He was the youngest player to named a first team AAU All-American. NBA Star for ten seasons. Noted as one of the toughest players in the NBA. His jersey number has been retired by both St. Mary's and Golden State Warriors. Inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.

Tom has published two books of poetry, 'Over the Rim' and 'Nothing You Lose Can Be Replaced' and a fourth-coming book of verse, 'Some Men'. He was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 2000.